Wired has a story about Obama’s desire to inflict mandatory minimum three year sentences on computer hackers.
Hackers who breach and cause substantial harm to critical infrastructure systems would face a mandatory minimum three-year prison sentence if the White House gets its way. The Obama administration is requesting the mandatory prison sentence in a legislative proposal it submitted to Congress on Thursday, which outlines a long but vague list of cybersecurity provisions the White House would like included in upcoming bills. The list includes a number of changes to laws governing hacking (.pdf), as well as laws authorizing the federal government to assist private companies in securing their computer networks when asked to mitigate threats. The administration also wants to create a national data-breach law that would help standardize the patchwork of state laws and force companies that operate critical-infrastructure systems to produce a security plan customized to protect against threats to their systems. The plans would be subject to evaluation by an independent commercial auditor and give the Department of Homeland Security authority to request changes to the plans if the government deems them insufficient. The government also wants to require critical infrastructure companies to report significant breaches to DHS and to give them immunity from civil liability for sharing information with the government. Critical-infrastructure computers are defined as those that manage or control systems vital to national defense, national security, economic security, public health or safety. These include companies involved in production and management of oil, gas, water and electricity; telecommunication networks; finance and banking systems; emergency services; transportation systems and services; and government entities that provide essential services to the public.
There are already plenty of laws on the books that allow for sufficient punishment of hackers who cause real damage. Do we really need more federal micromanagement of things that should be left to the states? The Department of Homeland Security is turning into an anti-freedom abomination. This stuff is nothing more than security theater and will not provide any real incentives for “evil doers” to turn from their ways. Meanwhile, the fed grows ever more powerful and intrusive. Good intentions are not enough to justify more rules and regulations. Government cannot protect citizens from privacy breaches because it is one of the greatest collectors and abusers of private data. You don’t hire a fat person to help you get in shape so why should the federal government be entrusted with regulating computer privacy? Does anyone really believe that all the current rules are doing a good job of protecting individuals from having their data exposed to strangers? It simply isn’t going to happen in my lifetime.
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